And the word of the Lord came to me saying,  “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them,  ‘Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds:                                                      “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves!  Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?  You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock.  The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was lost;  but with force and cruelty you have ruled them.  Ezekiel 34: 1-4  NKJV

We are often compared to sheep in the Bible.  Perhaps you don’t like being compared to sheep, because sheep are very simple minded creatures.  They need to be guided, protected, and cared for.  Well, I will tell you that over the last 10 years that no matter how capable I thought I was of taking care of myself, I was wrong.  I have come to realize that I needed a good shepherd.  Now in John chapter 10, Jesus tells us that He is the good shepherd.  So, of course, we have Him as our shepherd, but it really helps a lot if you have a good shepherd with you here on earth.  The problem is we must choose carefully when we are seeking a shepherd.  My husband and I were blessed for many years in having a good shepherd in our pastor, Bro. L. C. Lord.  Our dear pastor and friend passed away in October, 2016.  He is dearly missed.  When he died, I selfishly wondered what would become of all us sheep that he had so lovingly pastored.  God provided one of Bro. Lord’s best friends, Bro. Dan Munson to take on this daunting task.  I am so glad that he was willing to accept the challenge.   I feel that we have been blessed over the years by God as he provided good shepherds here on earth for us to follow.

Now when my husband and I first dedicated our lives to Jesus, we were like sponges.  We were trying to soak in teachings from many different teachers or shepherds.  We quickly learned that some pastors are very good motivational speakers, but they are not good pastors.  We also learned that while some speakers may appear to be good pastors, they are by no means good shepherds.

We began watching a televangelist that has a church not too far from us in the outskirts of New Orleans.  He was funny and engaging and seemed to know the Bible and we enjoyed watching his sermons on TV on Sunday nights.  They began announcing a woman’s conference and I asked my sister to go with me.  When I learned the address of his church, I realized that it was about a block away from my cousin’s house.  I invited her to attend.  She was working late that evening, but told us to come by when it was over and visit for a while.  I asked if she had attended this church.  She said that she had only gone a couple times, but really didn’t choose to go back.  She encouraged us to go and see what we thought about it.

My sister and I made the 45 minute drive to this church for the women’s conference.  It was a Friday night/Saturday morning conference.  We drove there Friday evening.  It attracted about 300 women that night.  The speakers for that evening were the pastor’s wife and another popular televangelist’s wife.  They first collected an offering then the visiting televangelist’s wife spoke.  She spoke of how they enjoyed riding their Harley’s together.  She spoke of the guns they owned and how they had recently obtained their concealed carry permits.  Now don’t get me wrong, I think Harleys are awesome and I applaud any girl who is prepared to defend herself.  The problem here is that I was wondering how this was going to relate to a biblical message.  Well sadly, it didn’t.  Both women spoke of their many possessions and their wealth.  This pastor’s wife spoke of the new home they were building and how large and grand it was going to be.   I guess they wanted us to know how richly God had blessed them?  After an hour, my sister and I left.  We were very disappointed.  I believe that God’s messengers should be blessed, but I also would have loved to have heard about how they were blessing others.

We went to my cousin’s house and were telling her how disappointed we were.  She asked us to get in her car and she drove us up to the front of her subdivision.  She wanted to show us the new house that this pastor and his wife were building.  We passed his current home on the way and it was a very nice two story home.  But when we got to the construction site of his new home, I was shocked.  His wife had boasted about the fact that it had a commercial kitchen and she didn’t even cook.  Had I not known that this was a personal residence being built I would have been sure that it was a hotel.  At that point, I realized that we should not be following this pastor.  I told my husband when I got home and he agreed.

This pastor made national headlines a week or so ago when he was asking for 54 million dollars to purchase a Gulfstream jet.  Seriously?  Just think of what 54 million dollars could do to shelter and feed the homeless in our country and/or abroad.  Just think of what 54 million dollars could do in the right hands.  The sad thing is that this pastor spoke of his friend,  the same televangelist whose wife had spoken at the conference.  His friend had already purchased his Gulfstream.  I guess since they both had Harleys they both wanted Gulfstream Jets.  How sad is this?  What is even sadder is that there are lost people out there flipping the channel looking for a shepherd and finding these wolves. Matthew 7:15 says, “Watch out for false prophets.  They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.   Matthew 24:11 tell us that many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.

We are not to judge others, but as Bro. Lord used to tell us often, we must inspect the fruit.  Matthew 7 goes on in verse 16 to say that by their fruit we will recognize them.  “Do you pick grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?”

My friends, we are living in the end times.  We must be careful.  Please don’t believe everything you hear.  We have a good shepherd in Jesus.  If you are unsure about something the Bible should be your first point of reference.  If you are choosing a church, check out the pastor.  Ask yourself a few questions.  Is this pastor more concerned about God’s will being done or his own selfish desires?  Does this pastor speak God’s word?  Does what this pastor say line up with what’s in the Bible?  Does this pastor want to help others or just himself?

There is a bumper sticker that says, “Don’t follow me, I’m lost too”.  Sadly, these false teachers and prophets want you to follow them.  They don’t realize they are lost. So you must be very careful of who you follow and who you trust.  Pray often and trust God to lead you to the right church and the right pastor.  He won’t let you down.

Have a great day!